Languages

Sudan

This country report provides information on the national legal framework including rights entrenched in the Constitution, women's property and use rights in Civil Code, Labour Code,and Family Code, inheritance legal mechanisms , land law and policies/Institutional mechanisms enforcing or preventing women’s land rights, customary law and land tenure and related institutions.

The publication presents perspectives from a number of countries including Sudan reflecting the idea that women’s land, property and housing rights require treatment within a broad human rights framework and that women’s status and condition, as well as their experience of violence, is intimately connected with their ability to exercise fundamental socio-economic and cultural rights. The contribution from Sudan documents the interplay between rights to land and property (or lack thereof) and violence against women.

This is the tenth in a series of articles concerning the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA), explaining how different parts were negotiated, what the paragraphs mean, and how they should be implemented. This article focuses on the question of land tenure. Conflict over land is one of the major reasons for the war in Darfur.

This book explores aspects of Sudanese culture that have a strong impact on the perpetuation of female circumcision in Sudan. This includes: the historical ritual and meaning of the female circumcision ceremony; the importance placed on female circumcision by men in choosing their wives; and the cultural definition of sexuality and ethnic identity.

The chapter of interest is called “Midwifery Training and the Politics of Female Circumcision”. This chapter discusses the training of Sudanese midwives and supervising all midwifery practices for Sudanese medical services. It engages such people about their cultural norms, gender roles and intimate practices – such as childbirth and female circumcision.

The establishment of the Republic of South Sudan came with high hopes that it might improve the lives of women there. But women’s rights activists in the country left behind–the mostly Muslim Sudan–are bracing for a battle against an escalation of Islamic fundamentalist law. Following South Sudan’s independence, its neighbor to the north, Sudan, is left in the hands of the widely-acknowledged-to-be-corruptNational Congress Party. President Omar al-Bashir, who took power in a 1989 military coup, was criticized for introducing Sharia law (based upon patriarchal interpretations of the Koran) in 1991, in a move that was opposed by the country’s Christian and Animist population.

This is a report of the general human rights situation in Sudan from March 2005-2006. The section on women begins on page 63. It addresses the issue of the widespread practice of FGM and the government’s refusal to make the practice illegal; speaks to the instrumenalisation of women in the conflict area of Darfur, and the systematic campaign of sexual violence against them; and contains case studies and statements of victims.

This discussion paper maps the experiences of Sudanese women around the application of what is colloquially known as the “public order” regime in Sudan. It reveals that the public order regime, in all its manifestations—its underlying values, prohibitions, enforcement mechanisms, and penalties- -is having a significant impact on the lives of many women from all walks of life in Sudan, most particularly the poor, marginalised and those who challenge the status quo.

This Position Paper is published by REDRESS and KCHRED as part of the Criminal Law Reform Project in Sudan. It has been prepared in response to a number of well documented challenges in respect of how allegations of rape and other forms of sexual violence are handled in Sudan. These challenges include the absence of appropriate and effective mechanisms to protect victims and witnesses in rape and sexual violence cases and the failure of the competent authorities to carry out effective investigations and prosecutions into allegations of such crimes.